At DTU Wind Energy our master students have the opportunity to work directly with industry and see their ideas come to life. As wind turbines grows bigger and the blades become longer to increase energy production, the risk of the blades hitting the tower increases. Jaime Liew developed a solution to this problem in his master thesis, collaborating with LM Wind Power. Last week, Jaime had the opportunity to present the results of his thesis to the wind energy industry at the annual Wind Energy Denmark event.

Jaime comes from Australia and moved to Europe to study at the European Wind Energy Master programme and delve into the Danish wind industry. His time as a DTU student paved the way to his current position as a research assistant at DTU Wind Energy. Here, Jaime shares his experience of working with industry as a master student.

"A significant amount of knowledge and tools used in the wind industry today originates from the research done at DTU Wind Energy. I was surprised how much interest there was in the results of my thesis."

Jaime Liew

What was the problem that you addressed in your master thesis?"I addressed potential problems faced by larger turbine designs that will have more flexible and slender blades. These turbines can easily accumulate fatigue damage, as they are more sensitive to variations in the wind field. To address this, I designed an individual pitch control system, which is able to react to the changing winds, which can help reduce fatigue loads in the blades and other turbine components. I also adapted the controller to actively increase the blade-tower clearance, which is something that has not been investigated in literature so far."

How did you work with LM Wind power?"LM Wind Power asked me to find potential applications for their new tip deflection sensor called the iRotor. I chose to focus on an innovative wind turbine controller and it was great being able to talk through different ideas with the engineers at LM Wind Power during my thesis. LM Wind Power was very supportive and they gave me a lot of freedom to explore a topic of my interest. I found the opportunity to do a master thesis at LM Wind Power through a friend who graduated at DTU and is now working at LM. So I am thankful for the strong network of current and past students that DTU has in order to my master thesis."

What did you learn from this an what do you hope to do next?"I learnt just how valuable this type of research is to the wind industry. A significant amount of knowledge and tools used in the wind industry today originates from the research done at DTU Wind Energy. I was also surprised how much interest there was in the results of my thesis. It made me realise that there is still plenty of space for innovation in the wind industry. Although Individual Pitch Control is still in its early stages in the wind industry, I hope that the knowledge I gained in this thesis will be relevant and useful in the future. Perhaps one day I will be able to apply individual pitch controllers in a commercial wind farm. Who knows."